Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/107898
Logbook Landstar moving toward electronic logs of a new policy, says Joe Beacom, vice president and chief safety and operations officer. Beacom says it stemmed in part from Landstar Inway – with Landstar Ranger, one of the Text INFO to 205-289-3555 or visit www.ovdinfo.com Since August, owner-operator fleet Landstar System has installed about 1,000 electronic onboard recorders on its leased trucks. The installations are the result 64 | Overdrive | February 2013 company's primary truckload fleets – moving into the intervention level in the Hours of Service Compliance BASIC (Behavioral Analysis and Safety Improvement Category) under the Compliance Safety Accountability program. All new leases signed at Ranger and Inway now come with the requirement for owner-operators to keep their hours electronically, using one of three Qualcomm EOBRs with other communications/ reporting tools embedded. The program also applies to current owner-operators, but adoption of EOBR technology for that group remains voluntary in large part. "Anybody who's already here can voluntarily get one, and [Landstar] will pay for the purchase," said Beacom. The owner-operator is responsible for airtime costs at rates of $27.25 per month for the Qualcomm MCP50 and MCP110 units and $36.25 per month for the MCP200. Such applies only with voluntary adoption, however, and will be an option for contractors as long as "they don't have any [hours] violations or roadside issues," said Beacom. "As they get violations, they'll have to get one – and pay for it." The policy has been in effect since August, when Landstar Inway crossed the then-Fatigued Driving BASIC's intervention threshold for hazmat carriers – 60. At press time, the Inway fleet remained slightly above the threshold with a score of 61.60, the only score in any of the BASICs above threshold level among all of Landstar's fleets. – Todd Dills